The World History of Animation Book

The World History of Animation is a global history of animation that is lavishly illustrated and presented as an instantly accessible graphical timeline that breaks down the last century into a readily digestible format.

The book will appeal to both core enthusiasts and the growing number of casual fans that are fascinated by the genre.The foreword is written by one of the fastest growing stars in the world of animation Academy Award nominated Sylvain Chomet, the director of Belleville Rendez-Vous and The Illusionist.The book includes animation from western mainstream to world cinema encompassing the experimental avant-garde right up to the most populist films and videogames.

It documents the myriad of dynamic styles, techniques, much loved characters and stories delivered as films, TV serials, commercials, videogames and on the internet. The World History of Animation is designed to be original and serious enough to appeal to animation professionals whilst being colourful and digestible enough for the casual reader.Organized chronologically and broken into three sections, the Film age, the Television age and the Digital age, amongst the topics its content spans are the cinema pioneers, the early European experimentalists, the birth of industrialized animation, the Golden Age of Disney and Warner Bros, WW2 propaganda, the modernist rebels of the 1950s, the West Coast beatnik underground avant-garde, Yellow Submarine and the psychedelic sixties, the rise of Asian Anime, and early computer pioneers up right up to the massively popular digital features of Pixar.

Along the way this incredible story is populated by the many masterpieces and maverick geniuses that drove this history forwards.Author Stephen Cavalier said “I felt that the current books on the market whilst often brilliant and extensive could be quite dry and academic or exclusively focused on certain regions or styles. I wanted to write the sort of book that was accessible, inclusive and talked about all the wild possibilities of the animation universe as a whole, the inspirational geniuses that have created those possibilities and the amazing wide open journey of discovery and experimentation that is the story of animation. The kind of book I would have enjoyed as much as an interested teenager as I would as an animation professional”Fact Sheet:

• Released September 12th
• SRP £40 (Hardback)
• Global History of Animation
• Covers 100 years +
• Accessible structure and writing style
• Short separate articles meaning digestible chunks of information
• Forward written by Sylvain Chomet (Belle Ville Rondevouz and the Illusionist.
• Lavishly illustrated and beautifully designed
• Laid out graphically as one big timeline for instant visual comprehension
• Divided into three eras; Film Era, TV Era and Digital Era
• Includes Biogs of the visionaries who have shaped this history
• Demonstrates how politics and world events affected the animation industry
• Shows the influence of 20th century fashion and popular culture on animation and how animation in turn often influenced the wider culture.
• Covers o Mainstream o Experimental o World Cinemao TV series o Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks Blockbusterso Underground curiositieso Asian Animeo Early Cinema Pioneerso Avant-gardeo Cult Classicso Video Games o Insane Works of Personal Obsession.

Topics:-

The split in animation between the differing approaches of realism on one hand and stylized cartoon surrealism on the other. This divide is obvious today but is not, as is often assumed, a new debate, and in fact has been raging since the beginning of the animation industry and we can perhaps learn from history’s lessons. That animation has perhaps come full circle in many ways from its primitive fairground sideshow roots during the birth of cinema to modern day ‘rollercoaster ride’ blockbusters. That animation is not a narrow field of formulaic kids bubblegum, it is a ‘big tent’, a wide open horizon of a countless styles, techniques approaches and types of story, limited literally only by human imagination. If we look at history we see that audiences have always readily accepted it as this, have been excited by these possibilities and been open to and eager to experience the many different journeys that are possible through the medium.A great read, beautifully illustrated and fascinating to look through! One to come back to time and time again. Simply stunning!